Just Around the Corner

You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find rubbing alcohol and a pin in downtown Toronto, Canada, but with some help from my good friend Google and its Maps, I was soon stumbling back to the hostel, armed with my blister kit.
“Should you really be popping those?” my roommate asked after carefully watching me set up my operation tools on the bed.
“I’ve done this before,” I said. That was a lie. But n4whales123 had tried it, and according to her (him?) this was a good idea.
The roommate smiled and kept watching. I was expecting her to go about her own business, perhaps surf the internet, read a book, go to the bathroom, fall asleep, go out. I was expecting anything—anything!—but not for her to just sit there and watch my pierce-and-drain ritual.
“Umm… Yeah… Sorry I have to do this here, but, you know, you don’t have to watch,” I said, overthinking whether or not I sounded rude.
“I know,” she said. She now crossed her legs and rested her chin on her hand, her elbow propped against the knee. Yup. Make yourself comfortable!
You see, what made this awkward was not the fact that someone was watching me pop blisters on my feet (a rather unpleasant and somewhat intimate procedure, in my opinion), but the fact that this someone was a complete stranger. Never met her before, never talked, never shared sentiments. The furthest we got in our interaction was the exchange of hello’s when I stumbled out of the room in the morning as she was just entering. I didn’t even know her name!
“I’m Susie,” she said.
After a brief pause during which I convinced myself that she couldn’t in fact read my mind, I introduced myself as well.
“How did you get them?” she asked.
“I went on the Walking Tour of Downtown.”
“Ah! The one they offer downstairs?!”
“Yeah. They forgot to mention it was going to be four hours.”
“I went on that today! Tour-guide guy was hot!” she said.
Okay. I guess we’re bonding now. “Yeah. Yeah, he was.”
“How long are you in Toronto for?” she asked.
“Two days; today’s the last,” I said.
Her face lit up. “So what are your plans for the day?”
Heal! Lie in bed and heal! “Nothing, really… Just wanted to—”
“Ah! Come with me!”

The story of how Susie convinced me to come with her on a mini-adventure is simple:
1. She was getting a little naggy.
2. She promised it would be just around the corner.
3. She asked: “Have you fallen in love with it yet?”